Techniques October 2012 - 44

Feature

Failing to Get an A
By Jamey McIntosh
n the Hollywood movie “National Treasure,” actor Nicolas Cage shows off many great acts of bravery and daring, keeping the audience engaged as he works to steal the Declaration of Independence and prove to the world that the Declaration holds the truth to secret treasures hidden by Freemasons. This movie is very entertaining and was a huge box office success. At the same time, it unwittingly shines some light on a concept that those in the world of academia try to keep a secret, yet career and technical education (CTE) has a unique opportunity to uncover it for good for the better. What is this secret we sometimes unknowingly work so hard to keep? It is that failure is good. Cage’s character, Benjamin Gates, must go to great lengths to reconnect the dots of the treasure’s location. Plan after plan fails until he learns the true path to the treasure. When his sidekick thinks Gates’s plan is doomed from the start, Gates paraphrases a quote attributed to Thomas Edison, who, when asked how it felt to have failed a multitude of times to make the light bulb, said “I have not failed. I have successfully discovered 10,000 ways to not make a light bulb.” If Edison had not realized the importance of learning from failure, what would our world be like today?

Achieving success takes hard work and perseverance, sure, but another crucial ingredient is the ability to learn from failure. If we do not encourage students to make mistakes within the controlled environment of a classroom, we might find that they will never attempt great things outside that environment.

Learning from Failure
Edison’s quote may hold the key to how we can revitalize and reenergize teaching, especially in CTE. To Edison, a technology student and teacher at heart, the only way to have success and accomplish great things was to fashion an environment in

which failure was not something to fear. To conceive of one of the most amazing revolutionary inventions of his time, he needed to have a place to create, understand and fail! When we think about the learning process, it can be the failures that leave the biggest impression and impact on our ability to succeed. That is why we include business simulations, welding labs and drafting classes in the CTE world. Because it is through these experiences of trial and error, of working to correct the mistakes, that teach us how to achieve success. Achieving success takes hard work and perseverance, sure, but another crucial ingredient is the ability to learn from failure. If we do not encourage students to make mistakes within the controlled environment of a classroom, we might find that they will never attempt great things outside that environment. We must remind our students that in the classroom it is okay to make mistakes. This is where the freedom of trial and error should be championed, to be able to hone their skills so that when they leave, they thrive. The 21st-century learner has a great advantage over previous generations when it comes to the ability to fail and learn from it. Today’s student is able to fail using technology and gain more insight than other generations because they are willing to try something and see what the outcome is without fear. Previous generations had to be so worried about the technology itself that exploration was stunted! For example, today’s 21st-century learner is fine with failing at a video game because they will just start over and try
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Techniques

October 2012

Techniques October 2012

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